Liu Jun leaned on the soft couch and looked at a report in his hand.

There are terracotta smoke pipes under the floor of this study, and the heat is used to heat the entire hall, so that you can sit in it warm and not be smoky.

However, the report in his hand made Liu Jun a little dissatisfied, the Nanyang all-out war has begun, the Nanyang sea, the central and southern coasts, everywhere is in a state of war, which makes foreign export trade seriously blocked, the sea routes of merchant ships are no longer safe, especially the loss of supply points along the coast of South Vietnam.

In order to avoid losses, the imperial court issued several orders for the maritime merchants not to go to sea alone, but to assemble a group and be escorted to sea by the naval fleet. However, although there was a fleet to protect it, Anyue's business could not be done, and even the business in Luzon, Java and other places could not be done, and the imperial navy could only ensure the safety of the South Seas, and it was more and more difficult to guarantee the Indian Ocean and other places outside the South Sea.

Many maritime merchants had problems with orders from the Spaniards in Luzon, the Dutch in Java, the Vietnamese in Annam, the Chenla, and the Ayutthayas. They have already paid for the organization of the goods, and the ship has already paid the deposit, but now the goods are piled up at the customs port, and they do not know where to go?

Many businessmen have been in great trouble because of this sudden war, and some smaller companies have even broken their funds, and if they can't solve this problem, they may go bankrupt.

This is just a ripple effect of the war.

At present, the opinion of the cabinet cannot be ignored, and the only way to deal with it is to intervene in the imperial court. The imperial court bought these export goods, which had no sellers.

But this is only a palliative treatment, even if the merchants buy the goods in their hands by the imperial court, they will no longer continue to purchase goods. But those who were originally engaged in the cultivation or processing of export commodities in the local area will also lose their buyers, and what they produce will be smashed in their hands.

And what about their losses?

Domino effect. Economic integration has its advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage is that now the imperial court is fighting together in Southeast Asia, and the result is that there is a big problem with foreign trade exports.

There is only one solution in front of Liu Jun, and that is state intervention.

It was up to the imperial court to buy the goods that were processed for export, and then find a way to transfer them to domestic sales, or reserves. After the safety of the sea channel is ensured. Exit again.

"It's a good thing for us that the Portuguese are still neutral, and now we have to strengthen our cooperation with the Portuguese, and at the same time establish commercial cooperation with the Mughal Empire in India, make India a place to sell our goods, and let the Portuguese act as our European commodity agents to send our goods to Europe on our behalf."

The Han also had merchant ships that shipped goods to India, Persia, and even Africa and Europe, but in the past, they were mainly transported to the coast of India, the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea. It was then taken over by the merchants there, who transshipped the goods overland to the Mediterranean and spread throughout Europe. The Portuguese have many colonies and trading posts along the coast of India and even in the Persian Gulf, and they have good control over this route, and letting them join in can help the Han Dynasty's commodity exports to be strengthened a lot, and improve the current predicament.

"The war in the South Seas will not end in a year or two, even if we can open a guaranteed route through India and the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. However, it will also temporarily lose the export of goods from the Indochina Peninsula countries and other parts of the South Seas. This will undoubtedly shrink our foreign trade exports a lot, and we have to find a way to make up for this part of the loss by expanding domestic sales. ”

In Liu Jun's opinion. The war will bring export losses, but last year's war court took Korea, Japan, and the whole of Tohoku, which will undoubtedly expand a lot of domestic demand. The only way to make up for the loss of exports is through the growth of domestic demand in these places.

However, the import of raw materials will also be greatly reduced, which is also a big loss.

"I have already sent a message to Fu Shan. Let him find a way to build some ports on the coast of Annam, establish strongholds and fortresses, escort our export shipping and supply to the port. ”

Liu Jun's strategic guidance for the imperial court's conquest of Annam was to make full use of the advantages of the navy, and at the same time, to take advantage of the narrow and narrow territory of South Vietnam. Launch a multi-point attack from the sea, first capture some coastal ports, establish strongholds and fortresses, and form points one by one.

Then, using these points as a base, Annan was divided, and finally the points were formed into lines, and the lines were connected into pieces, and Annam was completely annexed. Because Annam betrayed the Central Plains many times in history, the imperial court was very uneasy about the southern barbarians, and had already decided to adopt a completely different occupation and rule strategy.

After establishing a stronghold in Annam, it was necessary to transport the southern barbarians from the occupied areas back to the Central Plains and prevent them from remaining in place. These always unruly Nanban monkeys were scattered and sent to various mines and workshops to work and build roads. Then the whole people from some poor areas of the Central Plains with poor conditions and little arable land were emigrated to South Vietnam, although the cost of doing so would undoubtedly be very high, but it was a solution once and for all, just like the imperial court's ruling strategy in Japan, which has now shown that it is still good.

Annan.

One hundred and eighty miles northeast of Haimen Town, the largest military port along the coast of the Beibu Gulf of Annam, Dahan is the newly established Guangning Port.

The west side of the port is a military port, and the east side is a commercial port, which is used for both military and civilian purposes.

In the early mornings of the dry season, the port is very quiet.

Quang Ninh Port is both a fishing wharf and a military and commercial wharf, and the biggest output here is not fishing, but coal.

This port, which is only 500 miles from the North Sea Port and is northeast of Annam, near the Dahan border, was quickly established because of the huge coal fields discovered nearby.

Before that, it was just a small fishing village like Haimen.

But not long ago, there was a huge coal seam as long as more than 200 li, up to 30 or 40 li wide, the coal here is the best quality anthracite, and the coal seam is thick, the topsoil is thin, very conducive to open-pit mining, according to preliminary speculation, this newly discovered coal mine is a super-large coal mine, and its reserves are very likely to be the largest coal mine found in Dahan today.

This high-quality, easy-to-mine, and easy-to-ship high-quality coal from the port is extremely valuable.

In recent years, Dahan has vigorously developed the industrial and commercial manufacturing industry, and the demand for coal has also increased greatly, not only the demand for domestic coal in prosperous commercial towns is extremely high, especially the demand for industrial coal is higher.

Foshan Town, one of the four major commercial towns in Dahan, is the most famous iron-smelting town in Dahan, with countless iron ore and iron factories. The amount of iron produced each year is quite staggering. As early as the Ming Dynasty, it was already one of the four major commercial towns with the same name as Jingdezhen and Zhuxian Town. Now, because of the steel mill set up by the imperial court in Foshan, it has become one of the five major steel cities of Dahan, and together with the four major steel cities of Hankou, Anshan, Zunhua and Fengzhou, it has become the largest steel base of Dahan.

Steelmaking requires more coal than ironmaking, especially large amounts of coke.

From Quang Ninh Port to Foshan. The distance is 12,300 miles, which seems far away, but Guangning and Foshan are both close to the sea, and Foshan also has the Pearl River water system.

Not to mention, the coal from the Guangning Coal Mine can also supply Haimen, Dongxing, Beihai, Haikou, Guangzhou, Nanning, Fujian and other places.

Therefore, as soon as this huge and high-quality coal mine was discovered, the imperial court immediately paid attention to it, and the coal was named Quang Ninh Coal Mine, and the Quang Ninh Port was built in a nearby port integrating a military port and a commercial port, and craftsmen were sent to build a port here. Build fortresses and forts.

A large number of prospecting workers and craftsmen also arrived here, and the mine was quickly established.

In order to save on transportation costs, a coking plant has also been set up here.

It was almost six o'clock, and in the gray fog, the first coal truck appeared in the port on time.

From the coal mine to the port, there is a new horse-drawn carriage track, which greatly increases the transportation capacity.

With the ringing of bells around the necks of the horses pulling the carts. Quang Ninh Port has finally started a new day.

When the bell of the first coal wagon rang, so did the bell in the large bell tower in the harbor fort. The six bells of the bell tell the time to the merchants and people of the port and wake up the city.

Quang Ninh is also a port city with a curfew, and the six bells in the morning mean that the overnight curfew is finally over, and it also means that the hundredth day of Dahan to regain this port has arrived.

Because of the importance of this coal mine, the port of Quang Ninh for coal export has also become very important. It became one of the ten most important ports of the imperial court on the coast of Annam. Here, there is a permanent army of allies, and the harbor is lined with forts, so that any southern barbarians who try to break in will have no return.

At the beginning of a new day, the sentries who stood guard lifted their cloaks. As the rainy season approaches, the weather is getting hotter and hotter, and the weather is getting worse and worse, and standing guard at night is a hard job, even if it is only four hours in a shift.

The six bells reminded everyone that the hard work of the night was finally over, and they could take over the sentry, then go back to take a shower and change clothes, and enjoy a seafood breakfast in the cafeteria.

Ha Long Bay, just outside Quang Ninh Port, is a bay with abundant fishery, and every day the soldiers of the Han Army stationed there can enjoy very fresh and delicious seafood.

The seafood here is so cheap that the quartermaster in charge of logistics procurement can purchase a large amount of seafood every day to feed the officers and soldiers of the garrison.

Today's breakfast is fried clam rice noodles with shrimp, which is not tired of eating for Luo Rong from Fujian Youshi. Breakfast was good and the mood was refreshing for the day. Luo Rong came to a guard tower in the port to take over the shift, here is condescending, as a blocker, Luo Rong stands here, can see the entire dock area clearly.

Quang Ninh Port has a military port on the west side and a commercial port on the east side, so there is a commercial town on the east side and a military fort fortress on the west side. The fortress was heavily guarded, and idlers were not allowed to enter, but the eastern city was very bustling, with fishing companies, seafood processing companies, and merchant ships in and out of the port for supplies and trade, and coal and coke ships.

Coal made this port from scratch, quickly prosperous, and it was also the first supply port for Han merchant ships to go out of Guangxi in the South Seas.

In the south, in the Red River valley and further south of the coastal zone, the war continued, and with the support of the navy, the four corps of Japan, Korea, Jianzhou, and foreigners, totaling 210,000 men, plus the men and horses of the Imperial Nanyang Fleet, fought from the year before the year to the new year, from the dry season to the approaching rainy season.

Fu Shan, the former privy envoy, served as the governor of Annam and the governor of Quang Nam province, and he personally sat on the front line. Although the four legions were far inferior to the imperial field army in terms of equipment and morale, they were also outnumbered, both in terms of number and equipment, they comprehensively suppressed the army of the Later Lê Dynasty, and until now, it is more like the robbery of the four major legions in Vietnam.

Money-grabbers, money-grabbers, everything.

Every few days, there would always be ships loaded with the spoils of the four legions arriving at Quang Ninh Port, because Quang Ninh coal required a large number of miners, so the young and strong southern barbarians caught by the four major legions were very popular, and a young southern barbarian, tall and healthy, could even be sold for fifty silver dollars.

The Han Dynasty forbade slavery, but the prisoners of war in the hands of the four major legions were not sold to the imperial court, which was called cost expenditure.

Quang Ninh Coal has established the Quang Ninh Coal Company, which is not a state-owned mining company, but a joint-stock company with the majority of the emperor's investment and then through private placement, with crowdfunding funds from tens of thousands of large and small shareholders.

In fact, this is also a benefit of the emperor to everyone, many imperial relatives, nobles, officials, even civil servants, teachers, etc., as long as they are willing, they have the opportunity to join a share.

The registered capital of this company is also quite abundant, reaching 30 million silver dollars, from the beginning it was ready to engage in large-scale, not only coal mining, but also coking, and even built a track from the mine to the port, and even the construction of the port was a large part of the coal mining company, and they also directly formed a large fleet to transport coal by themselves.

From the establishment to the production of the company, three months have passed, and it has more than 100,000 employees, most of which are prisoners of war from the four major legions, and a small number of the prisoners of war are real soldiers of the Later Li Dynasty, most of them are ordinary people in the occupied areas, of course, the four major legions claim that they are prisoners of war, and no one in the imperial court denies that in order to recruit these indigenous employees of Annam, Guangning Coal paid the 'intermediary labor fee' to the four major legions, which is as high as more than 5 million silver dollars.

But with sufficient labor, the company's mining results are also very amazing, orders from all parties continue, Guangxi, Hainan, Guangdong and even Jiangxi, Fujian, Taiwan are vying to place orders, how much they produce, they want as much, and even have already lined up in a long line, especially high-quality coke, which is in short supply.

The general managers of Quang Ninh Coal have already decided to build a few more coking plants and add a few more mining areas, and are ready to place more orders with the four major armies and entrust them to 'introduce' more Annam laborers.

Mining, as well as processing and transportation, are labor-intensive, and many mines had nearly 10,000 laborers during the Ming Dynasty. Now this Quang Ninh coal is a collection of mining, processing, and transportation, and the scale is very large, and the labor required is like a bottomless pit.

With the development of Dahan industry and the demand for coal in people's lives, Quang Ninh coal, which has large reserves and is convenient to mine, especially the super-large coal that is easy to transport, has a very low mining cost and a very high profit. Not to mention 100,000 people, even if it increases by three or five times, it will not be a problem.

No matter how much you pick, you won't be able to sell it.

If it is in the interior of the Central Plains, you have to worry about where to get so many miners, but here, this is not a problem at all, there are millions of southern barbarians, and there are at least two million young and strong men, and some are sufficient laborers.

If the number of workers in the mine doubles or triples, then this port, which relies on Quang Ninh coal, will inevitably become more prosperous, and may become the largest port city on the coast of Quang Nam. (To be continued.) )